1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to networks, and more particularly, to routing and address translation in Fibre Channel networks.
2. Background of the Invention
Fibre Channel is a set of American National Standard Institute (ANSI) standards, which provide a serial transmission protocol for storage and network protocols such as HIPPI, SCSI, IP, ATM and others. Fibre Channel provides an input/output interface to meet the requirements of both channel and network users.
Fibre Channel standards are now being extended for use with expanded Fabrics and in storage virtualization. Storage virtualization defines virtual storage units for end-users and maps virtual storage units to actual physical storage locations.
Conventional Fibre Channel switches fail to provide a system and method that can efficiently support such expanded functionality and accommodate various addressing schemes that are required to enable a switch to function properly in Inter-Fabric and virtual Fabric routing.
Therefore, there is a need for a method and system for handling address translation for a Fibre Channel switch that may operate in different environments, for example, multiple Fabrics, virtual Fabrics and storage virtualization.